Sneaking one in...

This post is sneaking onto the blog in two ways. First, because I wasn’t intended to post again until the new year. And second, because the blog is called Toronto Poutine, and this is most definitely a post dedicated to Montreal. But I’m home, celebrating the holidays, and thought you would allow me one from the road.

It’s pretty much impossible for me to come to Montreal without a stop at Lafleur’s. With almost 50 years of history, Lafleur’s serves up staples of Quebec cuisine: including steamed hot dogs and what I believe to be the best French Fries I’ve ever tasted.

In fact, the fries are so good that I rarely order poutine here. The fries on their own are enough. A sprinkle of vinegar and a liberal dosing of salt, and I’m happy.

But in service of you, dear readers, I doused these fries with gravy and cheese and sampled away.

As the base for a Lafleur’s poutine, the fries maintain everything that’s perfect about them. The perfect golden brown colour. The succulent texture (just soggy enough). The rich potato flavour. And both the gravy and the cheese are good. But they’re nowhere near the nirvana that the fries deliver. The gravy is, I dare say, even a tad salty. So what was an incredible serving of French fries has become a merely good poutine.

So I’ll keep enjoying them naked. Thank you very much. But there’s no doubt that they’ll continue to be an important (and delicious) part of my Montreal routine.

Bon appétit!

Fries: 5/5
Cheese: 4/5
Gravy: 3/5

Total: 12/15

A tale of two Jamies

Jamie Kennedy’s French fries made him famous. It’s only natural, then, that we would seek Kennedy out in the quest for the best poutine in the city. And in fact, that’s exactly what I did – not once, but twice.

Tracking Kennedy down requires a tad more effort that it would have just a few months ago, before he sold his exquisite Wine Bar on Church Street. Now, the search for the Kennedy fries begins at Gilead Café – a tiny space located down an alley in Corktown.

Originally home to the JK Kitchens administration offices, the restaurant itself is delicious – rough-hewn wood tables, walls lined with jars of seasonal preserves, and an open kitchen and deli counter offering fresh, local selections (the menu is edited daily). The Pulled Pork Poutine, unfortunately, is anything but. While the fries are classic Kennedy – crisp, golden and full of flavour – the pulled pork topping is overly spiced and lacking in enough moisture to make the poutine come to life. And there’s just enough cheese to tease you into believing this actually is a poutine – a bite or two, and then its gone. A disappointing offering from one of Toronto’s acclaimed poutine masters.

We fare much better a few weeks later at the Jamie Kennedy outpost at the Gardiner Museum. During a special holiday event at the museum, Kennedy offers up a specially created Tourtiere Poutine. While the idea alone is enough to warm a Quebecer’s heart, the execution is even better. The traditional Kennedy fries are topped here with warm, perfectly spiced ground beef, a cheese drizzle and – best of all – tiny cubed potatoes. That’s right – potato on potato. It might just be my definition of heaven.

The only bad news is that this is a special seasonal offering only. I’m already marking my calendar for next Christmas. Merry Christmas, Jamie! And Merry Christmas to you, Poutine Toronto readers. The quest continues in 2010...











Blah! Pulled Pork Poutine at Gilead (above)











Hurrah! Touriere Poutine at Jamie Kennedy at the Gardiner

The day the poutine came to me.

I started this blog to help rationalize my poutine addiction. And with the faintest hope that I might be able to leverage it to get a free meal or two. Recently, I managed one better – I was lucky enough to convince the boys from Smoke’s Poutinerie to bring their new poutine truck down to my office at lunch. “Official blog business”, you know.

Since I’ve started writing this blog, I’ve been inundated by commentary about Smoke’s. And I think it’s probably true that I can’t really claim to be any sort of authority on the subject without a review of Toronto’s official poutine emporium.

Let me say first: I’m biased. I love Smoke’s creator and owner Ryan Smoklin (how can you not love a man with a vision to bring great poutine to the huddled masses of Toronto?). I love the simplicity of the idea – nothing but poutine and pop. And I love that Smoklin is building not just a restaurant, but a brand (I seriously considered a franchise. I’m not kidding).

But the real question is: do I love the poutine? The answer really depends on the gravy.

The Smoke’s truck came equipped with two kinds of gravy: the traditional, and the veggie option. In the spirit of authentic journalism, I threw my waistline to the wind and sampled both.

As a Quebecer, I’m a stickler for the right kind of gravy – and the traditional doesn’t quite meet my expectations. It’s a poultry-based offering with a strong sage flavour that belongs more on Thanksgiving turkey than on poutine. In fact – it did top a recently offered Thanksgiving poutine that Smoklin claims was a best-seller.

The veggie gravy, on the other hand, was much closer to the traditional “brown sauce” you find at chip trucks across La Belle Province. Rich in flavour, and beautiful to behold, it provided just the right compliment to the fries and cheese. Although the pieces of mushroom were a tad offensive to a poutine purist like myself.

A later visit to the Smoke’s location on Adelaide presented an even more intriguing offering: a peppercorn gravy that gave the meal a delicious kick. While not standard poutine offering, I’m willing to make an exception here and give it two thumbs up for tastiness.

There are a whole lot of things you can put on your poutine at Smoke’s beyond gravy. Enough permutations and combinations of flavours to warrant their own blog. So more posts to come on some of their selections. For now, my rating on the traditional offering:

Fries (daily hand-cut Yukon Gold): 4/5

Cheese (produced by dairy farmers from the Eastern Townships of Quebec): 5/5

Traditional gravy: 3/5

Vegetarian gravy: 4/5

Peppercorn gravy: 4/5

And a bonus point for style – for a grand total of 13 or 14 / 15 (gravy dependent).

(Oh. And the boxes are adorable, but messy. Be prepared.)

Love in the Food Court

I’m a poutine lover. An afficianado. A fanatic. But I’m no snob. I know that good poutine can be found anywhere. Like the mall.

Enter New York Fries – and the myriad of reasons you should love this food court mainstay.

Did you know that there is not a single New York Fries location in New York? Or in the United States, in fact. New York Fries is, in fact, a proudly Canadian company (although I’m not sure Bratford, Ontaro is known as a bastion of poutine gastronomy…).

How about the fact that this is a company that knows what they do well and stick to it? When they wanted to diversify, NYF launched an entirely new brand rather than muddy the menu at their core chain (hear that, Pizza Hut?). According to their website, “focusing on one product allows New York Fries to be the "fry specialist", and making perfect fries every time is why our customers continue to come back to our store.” Damn straight, New York Fries.

Plus, how can you not adore a company that refuses to take itself too seriously. Enter Gary Coleman stage right.

And finally, this is a company that makes a really, really good poutine. Crispy fries. A delicious, dark gravy that’s thick enough to stick to the potato, but not so thick that it congeals on top of the serving. And a generous serving of curds (although be warned that this is not your Quebec grandmother’s squeaky cheese – by the end of the bucket, the cheese is melted). Well worth a trip to the mall.

New! A formal rating system to try and bring some order to these reviews...

Fries: 4 / 5

Gravy: 5 / 5

Cheese: 3 / 5

TOTAL: 12 / 15

My Canada Includes Poutine

Spotted (thanks, Grant!) on the streets of Ottawa. How do I get this on a t-shirt?


UPDATE: I've just learned that there are, in fact, t-shirts! The sign is from Ottawa's Elgin Street Diner. I'm on the case...

To Market, To Market.

The Bier Markt is good for a lot of things. Beer, for example. But gastronomical hotbed it is not. And so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by what I found there on a recent outing to the resto’s newest location on King Street West – a middling offering of fries, gravy and curds packaged as poutine.

The fact is, it was fine. The gravy was fine. The fries were fine. The cheese was fine. There were some layering issues. And they could have been more generous with the gravy (ratio is important to me - take a close look at the photo below...there are some dry fries in there). But it wasn’t terrible.

It just wasn’t great.

My advice? Stick to the beer – let’s seek out a poutine that’s worth the calories.

Poutine Heads South

Today's poutine news is from TastingTable - a roundup of some of the hottest poutine offerings south of the border. Toronto Poutine roadtrip, anyone? I vote for Dallas as the first stop. Here are some of the concoctions they profile:

Dallas Bijoux chef Scott Golich's Bleu Benedictin Poutine, which features Canadian blue cheese, duck-fat-poached fries and duck-confit gravy, is served as a cheese course in his tasting menus.

Los Angeles At the meat-lover's playhouse Animal, chefs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo top their version with rich oxtail gravy and white cheddar.

New York City The recently opened T Poutine has gained a following for its no-frills service and DIY approach: Poutine purists can mix and match different types of fries (including shoestring), cheese, gravy and meat.

Philadelphia The "snack" of choice at the new gastropub Blockley Pourhouse is fries covered in caramelized-onion gravy, slices of short ribs and heaping chunks of industrial-orange "squeaky" cheese, a cousin to the city's beloved Velveeta.

Read the whole article here.

Poutine on Wheels!

Is poutine possibly the hottest topic in the news this week? Today's update is courtesy of Jennifer Bain at the Toronto Star: the highly anticipated Smoke's Poutine truck makes its debut this weekend.

Poutine on wheels. Whatever next?

Review to follow, as soon as I can track down that truck.

PS: Follow Smoke's on Twitter to keep up with their news.

More Poutine in the News: the new Smoke's location...

This one from BlogTO:

After nearly a year in business serving curry and nacho versions of Quebec's famous dish, Smoke's Poutinerie owner Ryan Smolkin is set to open his second location later this month directly across from the infamous Filmore's strip club at 203 Dundas East. It's pretty much smack dab in the middle of a part of the city known more for guns and girls than gourmet anything.

The location is so gloriously close to my office, I can't do anything but celebrate. And maybe go for an extra long run.

Read the full BlogTO post for more...

The Burger Shoppe: A middling showing.

There’s a lot that’s good about The Burger Shoppe’s poutine offering. Unfortunately, there’s also a lot that isn’t very good.

In the first category: cheese. Delicious, classic, squeaky cheese that holds both shape and flavour even after a short walk home with take-out. And cheese in sufficient quantity to ensure that even the last bite ends with that resounding squeak. Perfect.

Also great? Composition. Enough gravy to coat each and every French fry. A nicely layered dish. And a huge portion (good for sharing, especially if you’re pairing with a burger) – all for less than $5.

Not so great? Dramatically undercooked fries. A word to the wise: squeaky cheese? Good. Squeaky fries? Not so much.

And while the consistency – and even the colour – of the gravy is lovely, the flavour isn’t quite right. It’s trying too hard. And with a good poutine, each element should work in harmony, not in competition

There's a life lesson for you. From the bottom of a poutine dish. How about that.

Poutine News

From Toronto Life:

In November, Smolkin—with help from consulting firm the Fifteen Group (The Roy, Mercatto, Vertical)—opened Smoke’s Poutinerie at 218 Adelaide Street West and now plans to open two more locations: one at Dundas and Jarvis in the second week of September to specialize in catering, and another at Queen and Bathurst in November. This Labour Day weekend, he’ll launch the Mobile Poutine Truck to offer curbside curds.

Poutine catering? Brilliant.

Reliable Halibut & Chips: A Damn Mess

I don’t know if poutine was on the menu when Reliable Fish & Chips opened in 1930, but it’s a standout on the menu in 2009.

At only $4, this poutine makes a great meal on its own, or as an accompaniment to a piece of deep fried fish. I often choose to pair it with a crispy piece of halibut – a heart-healthy dinner any night of the week.

Some stories tell that the first poutine was put together when a man asked for fries while waiting on an order of cheese curds. The reply? Ca va faire une maudite poutine – loosely translated as "it will make a damn mess".

A poutine from Reliable is indeed a damn mess, and that’s part of what makes it so delicious. Getting takeout? The overall consistency of the dish by the time you get it home makes it hard to determine what exactly you’re biting down on – but that’s exactly why it’s so enjoyable.

Reliable’s offering is a great choice for our first review – classically delicious. Nothing fancy: just the right ratio of gravy to cheese to potato (a great poutine gives you a taste of each in every bite) with a rich and delicious gravy in a perfect portion size.

I’ve long been a fan of Reliable’s poutine – in fact, I believe it might be one of the best in the city. So we’re setting the bar high.

Where to go from here?

Welcome.

Comfort food. Hangover cure. Gastronomic delight. Poutine may be the world's most perfect meal.

And as a Montreal kid, I'm a bit biased against Toronto - if this city can't even get its bagels right, how can it possibly be expected to master the delicate balance between fries, gravy and cheese?

But I'm willing to give the Big Smoke a chance.

I know there's great poutine out there. Let's find it together. Here we go...